"I don't know, I just feel such a flood of emotions right now," UH coach Joe Curl said. "I think I've always done a pretty good job of keeping the game in perspective of what it's really worth.

"And it's a game. The kids won that thing. They reached down in their gut at halftime."

UH began as an independent in 1975 and joined the Southwest Conference in 1982. The Lady Cougars never finished higher than second and had never gone into a postseason tournament as the No. 1 seed.

That will change as the Lady Cougars will be the top seed in the C-USA tournament, which starts on Thursday. UH has a first-round bye.

UH (24-3, 13-1) has won nine in a row and 19 of 20. But there was little in the first half Friday to give the season-high crowd of 3,283 at Hofheinz Pavilion any indication they would witness anything but an end to the impressive streak.

The Lady Cougars were incapable of shutting off Kim Ortega's 3-point shooting and Sandora Irvin's inside offense. The 6-3 Irvin had 14 points as TCU led 43-34 at halftime.

Meanwhile, Chandi Jones struggled mightily with her game. She was 2-for-10 from the field in the first halftime and got little support from her running mate, 6-4 center Sancho Lyttle. They were 5-for-19 for 16 points combined in the first half. Irvin had nearly that many by herself.

Jones scored 16 of her 26 points in the second half. Also Curl threw a halfcourt trap at the Lady Frogs, double-teamed Irvin and attacked Ortega, who was 2-of-6 from 3-point range in the second half after going 3-of-5 in the first half.

"That first half we were slacking big-time," said senior Nicole Oliver, whose 3-pointer and five points in a row in the second half gave the Lady Cougars their first lead at 56-54. "We were giving up easy layups to the basket. They were doing whatever they wanted. We weren't getting back."

The door of opportunity opened wider for the Lady Cougars when Irvin picked up her third foul and went to the bench five minutes into the second half. She remained on the bench for about five minutes as the Lady Cougars cut into a 50-38 deficit.

"I would've liked to have kept her out longer," said TCU coach Jeff Mittie, "but the flow of the game changed pretty quickly there, and they were making a pretty good run at us."

Oliver scored all 10 of her points in the second half. After her 3-pointer and free throws gave the Lady Cougars their first lead, she knew they were on the way to claiming their first conference title.

"When I put in the three, we were pumped, we weren't going to lose that game," said Oliver, whose free throws completed an 18-4 UH run. "And after that, we were ready. The crowd was into it, we were into it. All we had to do was play defense from there."

The Lady Cougars have achieved long-awaited success, but Curl said the real job has just begun.

"We're not going to set a goal of getting to the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight (of the NCAA Tournament)," he said. "I want to go win the national title for the city of Houston and for the people at the University of Houston, for the players. And why not now?"